Independent County Councillors Liz Maddison, Billy McAloon and Pete Molloy are updating residents with activities they have been involved with in Spennymoor and at County Hall.
Cllr Maddison writes that on Monday 21 February we visited Spennymoor Fire Station at the invitation of Station Commander, Ian Moore and were introduced to the crew on Green Watch nightshift (6pm to 7am).
The tour of the premises was impressive. It has its own lecture theatre – also available for use by community organisations – a dedicated and fully equipped command centre ready as the back up to the main Durham Centre as well as a separate fire prevention training facility on site.
We learnt the high cost of their vehicles (circa £500,000) and saw that each vehicle was kitted out with the most up to date equipment and ready to go within seconds of a call coming through (which we saw as an emergency call came through while we were there).
Their cadet programme has just started back up again after Covid and young people – boys and girls – receive excellent training from our local dedicated and professional firefighters.
Further details of their cadet recruitment programme are on the station website
We look forward to revisiting soon and seeing the progress of the cadets.
On Tuesday and Thursday, in separate incidents, we had to arrange emergency clean up of broken glass at the Leisure Centre underpass as well as arrange for the removal of inappropriate graffiti in a number of areas of the town, following closely on from the damages recently caused to bus shelters.
Clean ups and repairs to damaged facilities and open spaces costs the rate payer and council in unnecessary time and money and we have escalated our requests for further meetings with the police to discuss the concerns of local residents.
On Wednesday it was budget setting for the financial year 2022/23 for the County Council.
After a lot of debate the proposal from the Joint Administration for a 3% social services increase was passed.
Adult Services and Childrens and Young Peoples Services account for around 50% of the council’s annual expenditure and post-Covid, due to increased numbers of people accessing these services, costs are on the increase.
A significant investment programme was also approved to kick start our local economy and this also includes investment provision for our new school in Spennymoor.
Regeneration work started this week on Festival Walk with all building works in the town, including the market place, expected to be completed by June 2022.
We have asked if completion can be before the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations later in June and will monitor this.
Fortnightly updates were requested at our last meeting as the work is progressing; the latest update provided us with the assurance we wanted from Hellens Group that the kiosks at the Cheapside end will be demolished.
Hellens have also said they plan to retain and refurbish three of the empty shops in this same location.
Work is planned to start on the Leisure Centre in the next few weeks with a new main entrance planned next to the ‘witches hat’.
The library is also to be relocated there. Independent Councillors are supporting a number of the centre’s sports groups with funding.
This week I toured the town with Cllr McAloon and a representative of Clean and Green to have sites identified for this spruce up. Painting of some lampposts has also been requested.
Former councillor, Kevin Thompson and I used funding last year to pay for Spring bulbs across Spennymoor Division which will bring some colour into open spaces during the next few weeks.
We also funded improvements to the mini roundabout at Cheapside and work on that will be started soon.
The Annual Big Spring Clean started on Saturday with Cllr McAloon, myself and a number of volunteers out early in the morning litter picking on the Auckland Walk. Over 30 bags of rubbish were collected.
Thanks to all volunteers who go out regularly on these litter picks. We ask all residents to please keep our town clean and use the litter bins for a successful Spring clean.
Spennymoor's local community newspaper.
